WHITE people are now a minority in London for the first time, the latest census data reveals, with the number of overseas-born residents having risen by more than 50 per cent.

The number of people who were born outside the UK has risen by nearly three million to 7.5m – the equivalent to more than one in 10 people and up from 4.6million people in 2001– the official data shows.

The statistics offer a snapshot of modern Britain, revealing that nearly 3m people in England and Wales live in households where no adults speak English as their main language.

The census, which was sent to 26 million households in England and Wales
in March last year, demonstrates the impact of immigration on the UK with the proportion of people born abroad varying significantly across the
country.

The data, released by the Office of National Statistics, shows that just 3.7million Londoners described their ethnicity as
'White British' in 2011 - down from 4.3million in 2001, and making up
44.9 per cent of the city's population.

It is believed to be the first time that British whites have become a minority in any region of the UK

It is believed to be the first time that British whites have become a minority in any region of the UK as well as the first time the proportion of the entire nation that is white has fallen below 90 per cent, the data showed.

48.2million people who took the survey described themselves as being white, making up 86.0 per cent of the population of England and Wales, down from 91.3 per cent a decade earlier.

Some two million respondents listed their partners or fellow household members as being of different ethnic groups - 47 per cent more than in 2001.

Guy Goodwin, from the Office of National Statistics, said the message coming through from the census was "considerable change, but increasing diversity".

Another major change to the nation came in the decreasing number of Christians.

The data revealed 4million fewer people claimed to belong to the faith, with a quarter of Britons stating they had no religion.

25.1 per cent of people said they had no faith, up from 14.8 per cent a decade earlier, while the proportion of Muslims rose from 3.0 per cent to 4.8 per cent.

The third most popular religion was Hinduism, with 1.5 per cent of the population, while 0.8 per cent were Sikhs and 0.5 per cent Jewish.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said the drop in the number of Christians in Britain revealed a "huge upheaval" in attitudes towards religion.

"It should serve as a warning to the Church that their increasingly conservative attitudes are not playing well with the public at large," he said.

"It also calls into question the continued establishment of the Church of England whose claims to speak for the whole nation are now very hard to take seriously."